“Alarmed.”
That’s the feeling 61% of likely voters have about this election, per a new USA TODAY/Suffolk Poll that dropped yesterday while we were downing hot dogs and Budweiser America.
The poll showed this narrow race getting narrower, with Donald Trump eating into Hillary Clinton’s once-double-digit lead and leaving just 5 percentage points between the two.
The race remains an unpopularity contest: 53% don’t like Clinton and 60% don’t like Trump, the poll found.
Jay Brooks, a 31-year-old engineer from Alabama, described America’s choice to us thusly:
"On one side, you have Hillary, who is being investigated by the FBI, and then you have Donald Trump, who has diarrhea of the mouth.”
It’s July 5, and America’s still intact and free. For now.
‘Hillary, who is being investigated by the FBI’
Hillary Clinton spent more than three hours with the FBI Saturday morning discussing her private email server.
“Out, damned emails!” is what Clinton may have thought while discussing whether she compromised classified information by using her own email system while Secretary of State.
Outwardly, however, Clinton said via a spokesman that she was “pleased to have had the opportunity to assist the Department of Justice in bringing this review to a conclusion.”
That conclusion will wrap in the coming weeks when the FBI will recommend whether to indict Clinton.
Attorney General Loretta Lynch, who awkwardly kicked it with Clinton’s husband last week despite overseeing her investigation, said she’ll now support whatever the FBI goes with after her meeting with Bill Clinton “cast a shadow” on the investigation.
So, what’s next for Clinton? Our Nick Penzenstadler explains.
IF CLINTON’S NOT INDICTED: The email scandal will follow her well through November. Top aides could still be charged.
IF CLINTON IS INDICTED: This race could get rocked. Were Clinton to withdraw before the convention, delegates could unbound and switch their support to Bernie Sanders – or someone else entirely.
If indicted after the convention, Clinton’s VP pick could run for the Oval Office.
THAT SAID: Even if indicted, Clinton wouldn’t technically be disqualified from still running and winning the presidency.
Maybe that’s why she just went out and saw “Hamilton” after her FBI chat.
Don’t ever change, Clinton PR team.
‘Donald Trump, who has diarrhea of the mouth’
Or, in this weekend’s case, diarrhea of the Twitter account.
We’ve known that, for being the least racist person alive, Trump strangely republishes and thus promotes a lot of racist Twitter accounts – at least 75 of them, by one count.
So on Saturday when Trump published an image considered by many to be anti-Semitic, we hardly flinched. Yet two things made this tweet especially interesting:
- The image, a Star of David over money, wasn’t a retweet of another Twitter user’s post but an original post from Trump’s team – of an image that appeared on a neo-Nazi message board and originated from a racist account.
It all led the Verge to ask, “Who at Trump’s campaign copied, modified and tweeted neo-Nazi propaganda?”
Condemnation of the original image from Trump would likely disappoint his supporters at the neo-Nazi site Daily Stormer, who saw the tweet and responded with the headline, “Glorious Leader Tweets Hillary Image with Dollars and Jew Star.”
More from around the campaign trail (and beyond)
- Trump spends July 4 with Iowa Sen. Joni Ernst – will she be his VP pick? (USA TODAY)
- But wait! He also saw Indiana Gov. Mike Pence! (Indianapolis Star)
- Or will it be Tennessee Sen. Bob Corker!? (@MaggieNYT)
- Republican national chair: This party needs to unite, badly (Milwaukee Journal Sentinel)
Even hot dogs not free from this damned election
Joey “Jaws” Chestnut ate 70 hot dogs in 10 minutes yesterday at Nathan’s Famous July Fourth contest. It was awesome and you can see video from the contest here. And maybe you’ll see the guy in attendance who held a sign that read: “Make America Eat Again.”
